Lawrence KS Carpet Cleaning

Carpet Cleaning Methods

There are several Carpet Cleaning Methods.  The two main types are Hot Water Extraction and Very Low Moisture.

Hot Water Extraction

This has become the most popular type of carpet cleaning.  It is also known as Steam cleaning.

The most common method of HWE (hot water extraction) is to prespray the carpet with a cleaning solution then agitate the solution into the carpet.  If the carpet is not very dirty often the agitation step is skipped.  The cleaning solution is often allowed to dwell (5 to 20 minutes) on the carpet.  Then the carpet is rinsed with water or with a water and a neutralizing chemical.  Carpet Pre spray is usually done with a powerful cleaner.  It is mixed into a sprayer and then sprayed lightly in the cleaner areas and heavier on traffic lanes and dirty areas of the carpet.

VLM Definition

Very Low Moisture cleaning normally refers to cleaning a carpet with either a 175 rpm floor buffer, a Cimex, Counter Rotating Brush (CRB) or an OP (Oscillating Pad) machine.

Bonnet Cleaning

Bonnet Cleaning normally refers to using a 175rpm Floor machine.  The Cotton pad that is often used with these is where Bonnet Cleaning gets it’s name.
There is a large national chain of carpet cleaners (Chem Dry) that has based their system on Bonnet cleaning with a 175 rpm machine.

OP Padder

The OP (Oscillating Pad)  machine looks a lot like the 175 floor machine but has a totally different action.  The base of the unit vibrates and rapidly rotates in little small circles and rotates in a large circle also.  It is very deceptive as to how much work it is doing.  It works very well on some carpets like Sculpted Berbers and Berbers in general.

Encapsulated Cleaning

There are new cleaning agents available that are called Encapsulating.  What these chemicals do is break the dirt’s bond with the carpet and dry to a flake.  This flake is then easy to separate from the carpet with normal vacuuming.  These chemicals were developed for the VLM cleaners but usually work well with HWE also.  Most of the time when encapsulating cleaners are used in commercial carpets.

Vacuuming Fast does not Work.

The brush on most vacuums causes agitatin and pulls back on the carpet fibers. This pulls and bounces the dirt up into the air and allows the suction of your vacuum to pull the dirt either into the dirt bag or dust cup depending on which type of machine you have.

Move the Vac slowly backwards.

This is when most of the dirt is being picked up. If you move the vacuum backwards quickly you will overcome the power of the brush and it will not pull the dirt out of the rug. If you move slowly while vacuuming you will allow the machine to pull a lot more dirt up and capture it.

Keep your Vacuum Cleaner filters Clean.

It is really important to keep the filters clean. If the filters are plugged all you will do with the vacuum is beat the dirt up. While beating up the local bully might help beating up the dirt in your carpet will drive more of it into the backing of the carpet.